We are excited to offer a completely free, hands-on outreach program designed specifically for Junior and Senior Kindergarten (JK/SK) classes!
One of the main goals of this program is to introduce kids to the butterflies that are flying all around them, including in urban and suburban settings. It’s also a chance to introduce Scientists in the Classroom.
Our program is available to schools across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Southern Ontario. We have already brought our butterfly outreach to several classrooms, including:
Following the success of these visits, we are actively looking to expand our reach and bring this experience to even more kindergarten classrooms!
To learn more, request a classroom visit, or if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at:
Amanda and Eryn have been in Kindergarten classes in Spring 2025, teaching about the butterfly life cycle, and showing kids how to catch butterflies.
On December 5th, 2018, Eryn was excited to be part of a program called 'Biology Pupils in University of Edinburgh labs'. It can be described as high school students speed meeting scientists. Eryn had one minute to introduce herself, and then five minutes to have a conversation with three students about the biology that she does, and the biology that she's interested in.
On May 14th, Eryn presented at the Pint of Science Festival, describing her research of hybridization and speciation processes in red deer and sika in Scotland. This was held at the Safari Lounge in Edinburgh. It was a great night discussing genetics, policy and conservation. With any luck, folks there will never look at a 'red' deer the same way again.
In April, Lucy Peters (@luce_peters) and Eryn presented "Oh deer, oh deer" with the University of Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. We had five great days of measuring antlers, and using pom poms to talk about introgression and hybridization. We had a total blast, and I suspect that some kids will now look pretty carefully at all of the deer they see, searching for signs of sika-introgression, and trying to guess deer ages based on antler length.
Additionally, Eryn was been part of a penpal program called Letters to a Pre-scientist. Between 2015 and 2018, she had a different middle school pen pal each year. We exchanged letters back and forth throughout the school year, and chatted about science, what it's like to be a scientist, and any other questions about science, research and school that they might have.